Ho hum. Another boring “article” that took in excess of 8 hours to write. I must be a glutton for some kinda punishment - sometimes I feel like I’m still in college writing term papers.

Anyhow, you’ve probably heard about the new interest in thrift stores that has come about because the way the eeekconomy is tanking right now. So, I put together an article with some tips on thrifting in case you haven’t really visited them before. And before everyone complains - NO this is not a list of all the thrift stores in your area… those things are pretty useless and outdated as far as I’m concerned.

Article: A Guide To Thrift Stores

Um, er… Konichiwa?

I had to think for a second there, even though apparently that’s the language of my ancestors.

You see, I’m one of those 2nd gen “illiterates”. It’s OK, I don’t mind, except when I’m at a Japanese restaurant and everyone expects me to eat either wasabi or sashimi. The latter, I can just barely stomach (which I suppose is good for the declining tuna populations) while the former is just north of dog poo for me (though I do like rotted slimy beans, go figure).

But still, Bryan-chan did grow up eating other typical Japanese foods for lunch and dinner. One of them is the Rice Ball, aka Omusubi, aka Onigiri. It’s basically triangular balls of rice, with or without a tiny bit of filling inside, and a seaweed wrap exterior. The reason I decided to put it here on Cheaplander is that it is a tremendously economical and delicious way to use up leftover sticky rice.

Note, I said STICKY rice. If you try to use standard white rice that’s not sticky, you will FAIL, i.e. you will not pass “GO” and collect 200 dollars. Unless you perhaps mix some Elmer’s glue into it…

The most common place that I had riceballs was on family trips and vacations. Funny, I just went fishing on my uncle’s boat yesterday, and although we didn’t bring along any musubi (we actually brought along Vietnamese sandwiches which is a post for another day), it sure reminded me of the old days when we used to have lunch on the fishing trips.

The benefits of having a lunch of riceballs on a fishing trip like this are many. Obviously, the portable aspect of the lunch is key - you can hold the riceball in one hand and your anchovy bait in the other. Hey, you might even want to mix the two - or not. The seaweed exterior also prevents the rice from sticking to your hands, although they are often also wrapped in wax paper or plastic wrap so you can hold them easily like you would a sandwich.

One of the other benefits has to do with the way they are (usually) prepared. I used to watch my mom prepare them - she’d have a bowl of cooked rice, a small bowl of water and a small bowl of table salt. She’d dip fingers in the water, then the salt before grabbing a handful of rice and forming a ball out of it. I asked what the need was for the salt - and apparently it helps to preserve the rice so you don’t have to refrigerate it overnight. Actually, you absolutely DON’T want to refrigerate your musubi - the rice will get all hard. I’m not sure exactly how long an unrefrigerated musubi will last - I think it also depends on how warm or humid the weather is.

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Ugh-itty. In the interest of Time, which appears to have completely disappeared this Friday, I will cut to the chase and present some of the reviews found around the webosphere lately:

Review Roundup - Week of Oct 24, 2008

Iateapie - Hummus makes me hum. I couldn’t think of anything funny about hummus, so that’s all you get.

Candy Blog - Mockolate sounds good in theory I guess. I feel like watching Friends.

The Impulsive Buy - I swear that one day I will lift my boycott of Carl’s Jr. Not for now, though.

Five Cent Nickel - Review of Credit Karma - where you can get a “reasonable” estimate of your credit score. All you have to do is give them your SSN. Hm… well, at least it’s not FARKING Free Credit Report Dot Shite. If I hear that song one more time I am going to go slay something.

Phoood - Bob Evans Sausage Gravy & Biscuits sez, “Welcome to your triple bypass heart surgery - I’ll be your guide today.”

Editor’s Note: I loved the above reviews, I wish I could write as well as these people, and now I’m going to get in my Time Machine and go back to the future so I can make a mint from all the stock market swings. Happy Phriday!

Well, our first poll here on Cheaplander was really no surprise. The question was “How worried are you about the Eeekconomy?”

Tallying up the damage, it appears 88% of respondents to our poll are really worried, very worried or somewhat worried about the state of the economy. There were only 18 people out of 147 responding that they weren’t worried at all which is pretty much what I expected.

Still it’s very stark to see those kind of numbers. This comes on the heels of the highest new jobless claims since 2001 - over a half million folks filed for initial unemployment benefits this week. The stock market has crapped a big one since rebounding earlier, as normal folks and speculators grrr… (”speculators” make me angry) alike bet on an extended recession.

So is the sky falling for Cheaplanders everywhere? Not really, but it’s difficult to be a Cheaplander and not be a little worried. We can survive these downturns by being a little more conservative than the average saver, thinking things through before making major financial decisions and cutting back on buying new high ticket items. The thing is that you need to do these things in ADVANCE of a downturn. It’ll help to suddenly cut your spending in a recession, but wouldn’t it have been better to have paid attention to all the bling-bling paid for with credit cards when the economy was doing well?

I hate to sound like broken record, so I’ll give it a rest. I’m an ant by nature, as opposed to a grasshopper, so it comes naturally. But I have a lot of grasshopper friends who just refuse to listen, or have even (in the past) belittled my cautious ways.

Oh well.

Speaking of spending, I guess the next question is what your plans are for the coming holiday season. Are you going to be cutting down on spending? (Ooh, retailer’s hearts just skipped a few beats there.) That’ll be the next poll - please answer at right.

There are perhaps endless puerile jokes I could launch at you concerning the new Dawn Plus Hand Renewal dishwashing liquid that was sent to me to try the other day.

Most of them have to do with the words “hand”, “renewal”, “job”, “skin”, “washing”. Oh, and how about “chafing”, “viscuous” and “fruity” while we’re at it.

Let the record show I physically restrained myself. I’m a good boy, mom.

First off, I have to say that I’ve been using Dawn products for years and years. They’re pretty wunnnderful. And no, there isn’t a customer sales rep holding a .44 magnum to my head as I speak those words. Never, of course not. What do you take me for. I’m not being manipulated in any way, no siree. I don’t get any kickbacks like free center ice tickets to the next hockey game either. They are not treating me to an all expenses paid trip to Disney World in Florida either.

I’ve actually found their dishwashing liquid every so often at the dollar store - I usually get the green apple variety. We don’t have a dishwasher (too Cheaplander-ish to buy one). So I go through quite a bit of dishwashing liquid at home.

Anyhow, the latest and greatest Dawn product is the Plus Hand Renewal formula. The claim is that it’ll improve how your hands look in five uses. According to the literature:

Breakthrough Dishwashing Product with Beauty Benefits… elevates dishwashing to a beautifying experience by combining Dawn’s superb cleaning power with a soothing formula that improves the look and feel of your hands in just five uses… As you clean grim from your dishes a protein enzyme reacts with your hands surface to help regenerate softer feeling skin.

OK, I think I understand that a little Vitamin E or whatever will help out your skin. It also apparently has something called FNA, the active skin technology ingredient from P&G Beauty - whatever that is. But let me tell you: I didn’t feel any prettier after using the dishwashing liquid. Oh, I’m no Zorkian Grue mind you. It’s just that I’m not going to appear on American Idol anytime soon (erghffughbarf… I just threw up a little in my mouth mentioning that show). What was my point here? Oh yes, I didn’t feel any prettier after using this dishwashing liquid.

They sent me the “Pomegranate Spash” variety of dishwashing liquid. The design of this 22 oz. bottle, I have to say, is rather nice. But I guess no one notices these type of things except for product reviewers and/or failed graphic designers. But yeah, there is a little ridge built into the bottle making it easy to grasp. This is actually a GREAT feature for butterfingers fumbly ol’ me.

I actually really liked the fragrance - it didn’t smell like pomegranate really but it has a pleasant aroma. It’s a nice fruit smell without being too perfumey. The color of the liquid looks exactly like grapefruit juice - remind me not to keep this next to the vodka. I don’t think it’ll mix well.

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